Smokey Robinson & The Miracles › 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: Smokey Robinson, Claudette Rogers, Bobby Rogers, Warren Moore, Ronnie White, Billy Griffin (vocals).

Producers include: Smokey Robinson, Berry Gordy, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Freddie Perren.

Compilation producer: Harry Weinger.

Recorded between 1960 & 1975.

Includes liner notes by Stu Hackel.

Smokey Robinson's consistently brilliant songwriting led Bob Dylan to call him "the greatest living American poet." As one-disc greatest hits collections go, this really is the ultimate Smokey disc. The epic soul of "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," subsequently covered with much elan by the Beatles, has perhaps only Sam Cooke's "Bring It on Home to Me" for company as one of the most moving, gospel-tinged soul ballads of the 1960s. All the band's best known songs are here, from 1959's "Bad Girl," which is gorgeous pop doo-wop, with nary a hint of the Motown sound to come, to 1972's "We've Come Too Far to End It Now," which was among the classic Motown sound's last flowerings. What holds the collection together, of course, is Robinson's heartbreaking falsetto. If you haven't swooned to it on the likes of "Ooo Baby Baby," you should check to see if you still have a pulse.

Genre:

• R&B / Soul

Music Categories:

• R&B: Motown

Product Series:

• Bargain Audio CDs & Priceless Collection